Rickie Lee Fowlerâs prosecutor asked jurors to act as the âconscience of the communityâ and recommend a death sentence for the man convicted of setting the 2003 Old Fire and killing five of its victims.

Fowlerâs attorney asked the panel to follow their consciences in a different way. A recommendation of life in prison without parole would be the harder decision, âif you look at the public outcryâ against his client, he said.

Death or life in prison without parole for Fowler are the choices for the panel. Jurors got the case mid-afternoon Thursday, Sept. 6 and concluded deliberations for the day just before 4 p.m. They will resume Sept. 11.

The proceedings were nearly turned upside-down Thursday afternoon when Fowler handed Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith a note indicating he wanted to testify during the trialâs penalty phase, or at least be given time to consider it.

âNo, no, no,â was how Fowler described his attorneysâ reactions to his suggestion that he testify, according to the note, which Smith read aloud out of the juryâs presence.

Smith told Fowler he would allow him to take the witness stand if he insisted, but also told Fowler he was exposing himself to cross-examination by the prosecutor, as well as other consequences. He urged Fowler to talk with his attorneys, and Fowler decided after conferring with them not to take the stand.

Fowler, 31, of San Bernardino, was convicted in August on five counts of murder and two counts of arson for setting the blaze that led to the stress-related deaths, all from heart attacks, as a result of the fire.

âWhat does capital punishment mean if it doesnât apply to this man?â Supervising Deputy District Attorney Robert Bulloch asked the eight-woman, four-man panel Thursday during final arguments in the penalty phase of Fowlerâs trial.

Bulloch said Fowlerâs life of crime and victimizing others far outweigh any sympathy that jurors should feel over his terrible childhood of abuse or his addiction to methamphetamine.

Fowlerâs brothers, sister and mother and other relatives testified during the penalty phase about how the defendant did his first line of methamphetamine at age 8, introduced to the drug by his father.

âFive murders, a county held hostage, a city burned down, neighborhoods wiped out. Rapes. Robberies. Forcible sodomies in jail, assaults on staff in jail â" where does capital punishment fit in our society if it doesnât fit for that man?â Bulloch asked.

âHe deserves the full measure of outrage from this community,â Bulloch told the panel.

But defense attorney Michael Belter told the panel, âA decision based on outrage is a decision based on vengeance.â

Butler told jurors Bulloch had not shown conclusively that it was Fowler, and not someone with him inside a van, who set the fire with a road flare. âMr. Fowler was involved in the setting of the Old Fire with other people. Thatâs the state of the evidence.â

He also pointed out there was no evidence that Fowler intended to kill. âIf you act without intent to kill â¦ howâs that rise to the level of killing a man?

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